Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1875 — A Chapter on Skeletons. [ARTICLE]

A Chapter on Skeletons.

“ Everything nowadays,” said Mr. Nash, as he eeased blowing through ,a flexible pipe of gutta-percha intowhat looked to a newspaper man, who yesterday interviewed him, like a barrel that had been twisted out of shape,“ everything nowadays is an article ofcommerce.’* (Mr. Nash is th&anatomist of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania.) “Yes, afar.” -he continued, “everything in this woAdawma to be business. Buying a coffin is business; chartering a it for a pie aaure excursion is Msine ss; and buying a dead elephant is ■also business. This” (pointing to the twisted barrel-shaped affair that he was indating so that it oopld be dried) “is the •tourach of tha«JMn ikount Park menagerie elephantft is the first one that was ever -dissected. Prof. Chapman set his heart on having it, and here it is. Everybody supposed that air running nahad four Stomachs, like tire cow. the camel ana the llama, vur friend,tbe elephaaL for the first time in the history of tha’acience. of comparative anatmuy, etc., we find has but one. Look here,” said Mr. Nash, exhibiting to me Uiedficd stomach of a llama that also “ nad ‘ died 'at the Zoo. “ See, here are four stomachs in one, and water-cells in which the gentle little , creatures could carry a supply of water sufficient to last them for two weeks.” The preparations anatomically considered are very beautiful; the skin Is almost transparent —entirely translucent To the cause of science the possession of the de-, tenet bdd.kof the elejiliant In question by the,univcpsily is of great value. The membrane enveloping the viscera is as large as an old fashioned counterpane, is preserved unbroken, and is almost as dainty and delicate as Mechlin lace. ‘‘You had a dead zebra also for dissection, Mr. Nash?" interrogated the writer. “ I bad to send him back to the Zoo,*’ was the reply. “ There is no place here in which to deposit the refuse after dissection, and at this season ot the year I do as little in that way as-1 can. Here's a peccary (South American wijd pig) that I am mounting, and here,** turning to a recess in the corenough, in ro exhibition of comparative anatomy "ere the skeletons of either of these species exhibited before." “ You remarked, Mr. Nash," observed the Times inquirer after knowledge, " that even ihing was an articSSibf commerce. Will you kimily indicate the force of that remark?” *' * - * • “/*W I g Er b4 n ly ■ The dead body of the elephant Empress had a money value, and jm» also" (pointing toa human skeleton elaborately sand-papered, varnished and wired with brass) *‘ has that. The difference between men and terrapins is that the former carry their skeletons inside of them, while the terrapin carries his skeleton on his outside. This is true of all the genus toefeufo, ami many of the Crustacea also. The crab sheds h‘s skeleton. I’ve seen days here within two weeks,” said Mr. Nash, as he wiped his face with a spotty-silk handkerchief, “when I’d have been‘right" glad to shed mv flesh %nd do my work sitFing in my skeleton alone. Things are a little dull nop-, Mr. Times, but two years ago I had more orders foY skeletons than 1 could fill. You see there are numerous secret Societies that require a skeleton as a part*of their paraphernalia. I don’t propose to name them, because I belong to j 1)111 ie 7 c °uld no more initiate a novice into their organizations without these mbMgos <£ hthnan mortality than Cardinal McCloskey could marry a couple Without a rfttg. Just now times are rather dull; very few hew lodges are being formed. Working people in the country haven’t means to form new lodges.; and that gentleman’ ’ (pointing to a skeleton hanging wry comfortably by his left ear in a neat closet, otherwise full of glass jars) “ won’t go to Carbon Ctounty as soon as I expected. I fixed him and wired him beautifully, as you see. His price was but thirty-five dollars, though, in a general retail way, he is worth fifty dollars; the consequence is that, for the present, he will hang just where he is.” “ Outside of the purposes of secret soci--eties, sir, who want these emblems »o remind man that this sublunary world is but a fleeting show, of what value are these osseous remains*” “ Why, country doctors generally like to keep a skeleton .somewhere in a dark closet,” was the reply, “where they keep their demijohn of applejack or old rye. Their wives, daughters or servants are sure never to visit it. If they take students they must have a skull, anyhow. No drawing or picture K can teach or give an adequate idea of the anatomy of the head, and a back-country doctor pretty generally will strain a point to procure a skeleton entire. To patients upon whom he wishes to make an impression that he is particularly erudite and a dead shot at mumps or worms he will sometimes exhibit this skejeton. Besides this, uo doctor's house in which a skeleton was Known to be kept was ever bfoken into. It comes cheaper than keeping bull--dogs and makes a man a reputation be- “ And 4he cost of a skeleton is how much, Mr. Nash?” -To lodges I furnish them for thirty-five dollars each. They „ are not handled there and are almost imperishable. For doctors the articulations reqaire to be strongly wired, and fifty dollars i» what I get tor one. Skulls are of more cbmpar itive value in proportion than the rest of the anatomy,” said Mr. Nash. “I’ve often had bodies with no skulls to match them. I have furnished skulls and crossed-bones to religious recluses, male and female, who wanted nothing else. There are societies, too, who buy skulls, and I’ve sent them to such far and near. I had the body of the murderer Teufel, who was hanged-* at Norristown some years ago. A physician got hiahead. 1 mounted the frame, screwed” the head of a negro upon it and sold it to a back-country lodge.” “What became of the negr ’s body?” “Oh, nobody r cares v yhat kind of material is abundant. By flie'law of the commonwealth the remains or Ml mho die in it unclaimed are handed over t > the colleges to promote the dHtofcate of k knee.” f.’ *bo.it the skeletons of infants, wr. asked the reporter. “You have them io the museum of your uni- 1 versity. How is it that preparations so delicate can be dissected*” “They'all come from Frmce,” said Mr. Nash. “All that sort of things is produced abroad. They are necessary for us to have, but‘not an anatomist would be encouraged by any college in this counttv to prepare them. Skeletons of birds ana small animals are prepared in the same way. No human hand, even if working pnder a microscope, could do it half so well. The bird, or whatever it may be, is sprinkled with sugar and placed near by an ant-hill. In a few days nothing but the bone contained in it is left ? “‘Are these preparations expensive?’ St. Veor much so. A skull consound teeth, so dissected and Mitas to exhibit the actual nerves

and circulation, is worth S2OO. All these things are as much articles of trade as boots or bonnets. They always will be so. Dull as times now are? 1 cannot keep up,” said Mr. Nash, “with the demaud for skulls.” The skulls of murderers, somehow or other, very often very singularly vanish. The skull of Probst is in the museum of Jefferson College. Nobody there had any use for his bones. Anyhow, they wouldn’t have kept They were soft, almost calcareous, ana the carcass went the way of all such flesh. continued Mr. Nash, “is curious—a queer thing, indeed, I may say is bone. When I began this business they used to say that the skeleton of a dropsical person was the best for preservation because the bones macerated in the water. But that isn’t so. I had a lower jaw-bone from which the teeth had been removed, and it made the neatest inkstand yoq ever saw. I got the dental process lined with metal, set it upon brass feet, and the upper part of the jaw made just as pretty a place to rest a pen holder in as ever you saw. A halfdozen of doctors wanted it, but before 1 could decide as to which to consign it somebody stole it.

“ Here’s something interesting,” said Mr. Nash, as he pointed to the skeleton of a big, dog-faced babboon. “ This fellow,” said he, “was brought to me by Maj. Ingalls, very ill with pulmonary consumption. He took his cod-liver oil from me and his orange afterward with all the submission of a child. I didn’t expect to cure him, for his left lungwas gone. Why, sir, these monkeys have consumption Just; as we do, only, what is worse in them, it is contagious.” The skeleton of this monkey was mounted in an erect posture. A pair of spectacles were upon his nose and he was leaning upon a scythe made to suit his size. A miniature hour-glass in Lis hand made him a fair representative of Father Time. “A man who kept a barroom near the college," said Mr. Nash, “ asked me to lend him that skeleton as a curiosity, and I did so. lie was puzzled when that day, in constant succession, people who first called for hard drink immediately changed their order to cider or porter sangaree. It was well on to the middle of the day when what to him had been an enigma was solved. ‘ Why, mister,’ said a man who had ordered a drink of applejack, ‘just you give me a glass of ale. That ere skeleton there kind o’ makes me feel as though if I drank your Jersey lightning *twouldn’tbe long afore I got to be jist where he is.’ Ten minutes afterward the skeleton of the defunct ape was again in my custody. Times. — —-F— ——r- —-4—— : -----